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[drama] IT’S OKAY, THAT’S LOVE… so go ahead and watch this drama

[This is not a review/recap–I suck at them anyway–but still, spoilers ahead.]

It took me until the sixth episode to really understand what IT’S OKAY, THAT’S LOVE is all about.

What drew me in to this drama in the first place was the Jo In-sung and Gong Hyo-jin team-up. I like them individually and okay, maybe I’ll watch anything with JIS in it. But I was also wary because No Hee-kyung wrote this and while THAT WINTER, THE WIND BLOWS was a visual delight, it was really makjang as makjang could get that my admiration for her for WORLDS WITHIN almost disappeared.

The plot of IOTL is very interesting though. A writer and a psychiatrist.

Confession time: I wanted to be a shrink. Human behavior fascinates me. But I hated science so I went for the other alternative, which was social behavior (less science). Of course eventually, I found myself in an entirely different career path, a path that I tried very hard to avoid, but even with what I do now, my sociology background still comes very handy. Group behavior fascinates me very much and that’s also why fandom is an interesting place for me, it’s like a huge laboratory.

But I digress…

A drama about a writer and a psychiatrist is like when two interests collide. But I was kind of lost in the first two episodes, probably because I was too busy staring at JIS to really pay attention to the development of the story. Oh, and the pretty facade of the house in Hongdae.

But then episode 6 came and BOOM!

The episode delved deeper into the trauma of the two main characters, Jang Jae-yeol and Ji Hae-soo. Both of them came from dysfunctional families with their own versions of tragedy. My heart went out to Jae-yeol when flashes of his painful childhood past came back to him through his young friend Han Gang-woo; and to Hae-soo when her trauma over her mother’s affair haunts her as she’s dealing with her feelings for Jae-yeol.

This drama is so different because the characters are quite upfront with their feelings. The development of the romance does not go the drama-road-paved-with-roses way but is taken from the perspective of two adults who are dealing with their scars.

“People have to go through bitter and sweet things in life to grow up.” – Jae-yeol

But it’s that scene when Jae-yeol finally reveals to Hae-soo his “bedroom”, also known as the bathtub in his bathroom, that really stood out for me. The story on why he sleeps in the bathroom and finds it the safest place in the world (episode 5) broke my heart. In his bathroom/bedroom, there’s a painting of a camel and he explains to Hae-soo:

“They tie up the camels in the desert at night. When morning comes, they remove the string. But the camels don’t run away because they remember the time they have been tied up. Just like how we remember our scars.”

The lines have the mark of Writer No all over and the OST is such ear candy that they add to the appeal of the drama. Sung Dong-il is also here, he’s one of my favorite Korean character actors. It’s an ensemble drama which I like and the cast is likable including Lee Kwang-soo.

While watching, it made me wonder what it would be like had I pursued psychiatry. Maybe I can offer free consultation to crazy fans. But since I didn’t, I’ll just write about them.